Articles in category: Entrepreneurship

Tech Foundry, the Springfield-based workforce training nonprofit, has won a $123,808 grant from the Commonwealth Corporation's Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund. 'It will allow us to continue to expand our class size and it will allow us to increase the number of employer partners we can work to fill vacancies with,' said Tech Foundry Director of Strategic Partnership Jonathan Edwards. The grant will likely cover an 18-month contract with Commonwealth Corp., pending the signing of the contract in July, Edwards said. The grant is part of over $2 million in funds awarded by the trust fund in late April.

The companies are of wide-ranging backgrounds, Valley Venture said in a press release. Six are run by women and three by people of color. Five are tech companies and seven make physical products. Nine are from the Pioneer Valley, four are from Springfield and others are considering moving to the city. And on May 26, Valley Venture -- which runs a mentorship program for local entrepreneurs, and will be a primary tenant of the upcoming Springfield Innovation Center -- will kickstart some of those businesses. A panel of angel investors and venture capitalists will allocate $250,000 in funding to the businesses ...

At 7 pm, Wednesday, May 25, Mount Holyoke College will host a workshop for community residents and members of the Mount Holyoke community interested in exploring what is involved in starting your own business.

The Springfield Innovation Center now taking shape inside what had been an abandoned building at 270-280 Bridge St. downtown could end up producing the next MassMutual Financial Group or the next Smith & Wesson. According to Jay Ash, Massachusetts secretary of Housing and Economic Development, that's just some of the potential success the center could breed. Ash spoke Friday at a ceremonial groundbreaking -- in reality they smashed plasterboard with a hammer -- for the Innovation Center facing Steiger Park.

The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation's Entrepreneurship Initiative honored 78 Pioneer Valley college and university students n Wednesday for their entrepreneurial spirit by launching a business or developing an exceptional business concept. The evening showcased 56 businesses and services as part of the Grinspoon Class of 2016.

Massachusetts Sec. of Labor and Workforce Development Ronald Walker toured the workforce training nonprofit Tech Foundry on Monday and came away impressed, he said. 'I like the model. The model is collaborative. It includes the businesses and the training directly for the jobs available, and the hands on training really makes sense,' Walker said in an interview. Tech Foundry, a nonprofit that partners with organizations and corporations including Baystate Health, Crocker Communications, the Davis Foundation and the Beveridge Family Foundation, offers job skills training for Western Mass. residents trying to enter the information technology or coding fields. The program graduated ...

Lauran Thompson — a paralegal who had managed her family’s law office, Thompson & Thompson, for 15 years — recognized the value of co-working as well, and saw opportunity in a model popular among law professionals out west and in Boston, but sorely lacking in Western Mass. The business she started, Dockit — located just off Main Street, in the pedestrian walkway between Harrison Street and the MassMutual Center known as Market Place — provides exactly that, with plenty of amenities to boot. Members don’t have their own desks or offices, but can work or meet with clients in a number of shared ...

If all Ascentria Care Alliance did for refugees was help them get established in the U.S. and find jobs, it would be important work. But, thanks to an initiative launched in 2010 called the Microenterprise Development Program, Ascentria is actually putting many of its clients on the road to business ownership, through education, assistance with permitting and other hurdles, and small loans. The result, so far, is a patchwork of intriguing startups across the Pioneer Valley owned by people who truly appreciate their new opportunity, and have their sights set on continued growth.

TechSpring is located on the fifth floor of the MassLive Building, 1350 Main St., and owned by Baystate Health, the same regional health care system that owns Baystate Medical Center and four community hospitals in Westfield, Ware, Greenfield and Palmer as well as Health New England, a health insurer. TechSpring is working on innovations like the remote monitoring technology, e-visits for health care professionals and automated kiosks where a patient steps into a photo booth-sized pod and uses attached blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes to check his own vitals while a professional looks on via computer.

Leanne Sedlak opened Cheeky City at 1341 Main St. late last month, her newest business in Springfield. The boutique features a casual, fun atmosphere. Upon stepping into the store -- located near the MassMutual Center -- black, white and hot pink pop out among an array of colors in Cheeky City. One corner of the business features a purple, shimmering bathtub.

After 15 months of construction and renovations, Click Workspace will soon open for business on Market Street. Click, a co-working enterprise that acts as a temporary home-base for entrepreneurs, techies and creative professionals -- currently headquartered at 20 Hampton Ave. -- purchased the 9,000-square-foot building at 9-1/2 Market Street in Jan. 2015.

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal listened intently Friday as, one-by-one, entrepreneurs from this year's Valley Venture Mentors Springfield Accelerator program shared successes they've had in the last few weeks. One fledgling company got its first paying customer. A few said their products are now available internationally. Some were able to get more funding to help finance their dream. Neal, D-Springfield, spoke during the first day of Valley Venture Mentors Springfield Accelerator boot camp at the Mentors headquarters in Tower Square. His appearance followed a morning of closed-door meetings on the subject of fostering new business and economic ...

The Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association is inviting the public to attend its next meeting, March 16, to hear a panel discussion regarding downtown programs related to entrepreneurship, workforce training and the planned Innovation Center. The meeting is entitled 'Business Innovation in the Downtown,' and is being conducted at 6 p.m., on Wednesday, March 16, at the Central Library, 220 State St. The program will be presented in the library community room on the first floor.

It was property basically slated to go dark. That was the fate awaiting the closed cinema complex at the Springfield Plaza … until a group of entrepreneurs with some imagination commenced a process to make it a part of a new wave in business and recreation — trampoline sports. Early returns suggest the facility known as Bounce! was a leap worth taking. Bill Merrill couldn’t help himself. When asked how many young people — and some maybe not so young — he expects to see at his new venture, Bounce! Trampoline Sports, on a given day, week, or month, he started by saying ...

Sometimes I think, as residents of Western Massachusetts we are hardest on ourselves and have trouble seeing the very positive things that are happening in our economy, when those from outside the region see a very different, and bright, picture. A perfect example of this is our quickly growing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. The Western Massachusetts Ecosystem is led by and coordinated through the Valley Venture Mentors, an affiliate of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC).

The holidays are over, but at least one of the vendors from the Springfield Holiday Market have stuck around and are now trying to make it as year-around brick-and-mortar retailers in the city's downtown. 'We'd never planned to stay after the holiday pop-up,' said Mikki Lessard, one of the owners of Simply Grace, a Monson-based online retailer of jewelry and gift items, much of it crafted by women.

As a chemistry teacher in the late ’70s, Rich Rediker was simply seeking a way to generate tardy notices more efficiently, using a computer which, by today’s standards, seems impossibly inadequate for … well, anything. But that humble machine became the foundation of what has evolved into an international leader in school administrative software, doing business in every state and 115 countries. Through four decades of innovation and growth, one goal has remained constant: to make life easier for teachers and administrators, so they, in turn, can spend more time with the kids.

Days after Gov. Charlie Baker proposed a $918 million bill to boost economic development in Massachusetts, Sec. of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash took a tour of Tech Foundry -- the job training initiative that founder Delcie Bean has pitched as an tool to bring Silicon Valley-style innovation to Western Mass. Ash, following a private talk with Bean and Tech Foundry Director of Strategic Partnership Jonathan Edwards, took in part of a Javascript class being held at Tech Foundry's headquarters nine stories above Main Street.

Western New England University College of Business students recently collaborated with White Lion Brewing Co. to create an in-depth market research report to help the company expand its reach outside of the Pioneer Valley. White Lion Brewing, the first craft brewery in the City of Springfield, recently cracked the Valley Beer Hunter's 'Must Try Craft Beers' list, according to a news release from Western New England. The university students began their research in the spring semester 2015 culminating in their final report in December 2015.

Western New England University College of Business students recently collaborated with White Lion Brewing Co. to create an in-depth market-research report to help the company expand its reach outside of the Pioneer Valley. White Lion Brewing, the first craft brewery in the city of Springfield, recently cracked the Valley Advocate Beerhunter’s “Must Try Craft Beers” list. The university students began their research last spring, culminating in their final report in December 2015. White Lion was part of Valley Venture Mentors’ inaugural accelerator cohort last year, and a finalist for competing in the Accelerator Awards in April, winning seed money ...

The award and the philosophy behind it explains why Big Y is still here 80 years after Paul D’Amour, with assistance from his much younger brother, Gerry, and, later, sisters Ann Marie, Yvette, and Gertrude, opened the Y Cash Market in Chicopee. They also explain why the company now logs $1.7 billion in annual revenues; how it’s gone from one 30-foot-wide corner market to 63 supermarkets in Massachusetts and Connecticut; why it continues to expand into new business realms, such as convenience stores with its acquisition of several O’Connell Convenience Plus gas stations; and why it ...

If not for Spark Holyoke and the business classes it offers to budding entrepreneurs, Sheila Coon would still be getting her business organized and not offering samples of cinnamon-sugar encrusted eggnog snickerdoodles at a news conference marking additional funding for the organization. 'They really helped me get started,' Coon said. She's delivery-only now, through the website www.hotovencookies.com, but she's looking for a storefront in Holyoke.

t's the third year in a row for the annual event. The 'State of Entrepreneurship' is the idea of Steve Davis of the Davis Foundation and chairman of the Economic Development Council's Entrepreneurship Committee. 'I think we have unbelievable activity here on the entrepreneurship side,' Davis said. 'It's very exciting.' That's good not only for the business startups but for the region. 'I talk about it as business regeneration,' Davis said. 'We had Friendly's and MassMutual and Smith & Wesson here for generations. These all started as small businesses. Now we have to plant the seeds ...